Mark Curtis has been informed that the Iowa parole board will review his case on October 18 to decide whether to grant him a hearing in November. This gives supporters of the imprisoned union and political activist still a little time to write to the parole board on his behalf. If the authorities agree to give him a hearing it would be in Fort Madison, Iowa on November 21.
In 1993 Curtis completed his sentence on a trumped-up rape charge and is serving time on a burglary charge that was tacked on by the cops and prosecutors several weeks after he was arrested. According to Iowa Board of Parole statistics, prisoners released in 1994 who were convicted on the same burglary charge as Curtis served an average of 76.2 months in prison. Curtis has been incarcerated 85 months. Supporters campaigning to win parole for Mark Curtis will get a greater hearing from working people as a result of the exposure of cop corruption across the country. Joseph McNamara, a former police chief in California, recently told the New York Times, "Suddenly, everybody's looking at the police and saying, `You know, we can't trust them.' " Well, it's not "suddenly" that working people, and in particular Blacks, learned that cops can't be trusted. The O.J. Simpson trial simply put a national spotlight on the rotten character of the police with the revelations about racist cop violence and frame- ups described by Los Angeles ex-detective Mark Fuhrman. There are thousands of Mark Fuhrmans, along with the rest of the cops who look the other way during police atrocities.
Fuhrman showed that typical cop behavior is planting evidence, lying, and brutalizing people.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the Simpson verdict delivered a "message" to the capitalist rulers from working people on their "criminal justice system." That message was, "They don't trust it." Federal prosecutors subpoenaed the records of 100,000 arrests in six police districts in Philadelphia as part of a scandal that continues to unravel. Several cops in that city have pleaded guilty to planting drug evidence, stealing money, and lying on arrest reports. In Des Moines, where Curtis was arrested, the police department also has been rife with scandals involving charges of racist and sexual harassment, use of racist epithets, and brutality. The central police witness against Curtis was suspended from the Des Moines police force for brutality and lying in a previous case. Unlike in the Simpson case, the jury was not allowed to hear this evidence.
Thousands of working people are railroaded to prison on the words of lying cops. While O.J. Simpson got the fairest trial money can buy in capitalist society, most working people are trapped in jail because they can't afford high-priced attorneys.
More political space exists for the international campaign to free Mark Curtis as the truth about the capitalist injustice system is revealed. Activists in the campaign should take advantage of this space to win more support and to get some additional letters to the Iowa State Board of Parole urging that Curtis be freed.